Last month, I had the opportunity to attend the United Nations (UN) Women HeForShe Summit in New York, accompanied by BMC Chief Financial Officer Marc Rothman. At the Summit, UN Women unveiled the powerful theme of #RespectfullyDisruptive, calling for a collective disruption of global inequalities. This theme emphasizes the urgent need to challenge the status quo and chart a new course toward gender equality, with men as active partners in this journey.

The significance of male allies like Marc in propelling gender equality forward cannot be overstated. In a world grappling with complex challenges, their involvement is crucial. As Sima Bahous, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, puts it, “We must challenge the portrayal of toxic masculinity and promote positive male role models who champion gender equality.”

The power of respectful disruption

Respectful disruption translates into tangible actions that contribute to transforming gender equality into a reality. These actions include active allyship, concrete commitments to advance gender balance, intensifying efforts towards gender parity, standing up against biased attitudes and behaviors, countering gender discrimination, implementing Women’s Empowerment Principles, closing the gender pay gap, advocating for more women in leadership positions, and designing workplace policies that foster equality and inclusion.

Targets of respectful disruption

The call for respectful disruption addresses critical fronts that include:

• Gender social norms: These norms perpetuate biases against gender, hindering individual progress and potential.
• Struggle: Harmful models of masculinity oversimplify the image of men, restricting their ability to embrace their full range of emotions and roles.
• Gender pay gap: The persistence of unequal pay for work of equal value perpetuates economic disparities.
• Violence against women: Violence remains a pervasive issue, affecting the lives of countless women globally.
• Active allyship: Taking proactive steps to bolster gender equality initiatives.

Why gender parity and female leadership matter

While women are making inroads into corporate leadership, there’s still much to do. According to McKinsey’s Women in the Workplace 2023 study, “Since 2015, the number of women in the C-suite has increased from 17 to 28 percent, and the representation of women at the vice president and senior vice president levels has also improved significantly,” but “women—and especially women of color—have remained underrepresented across the corporate pipeline.”

Organizations that prioritize gender parity and female leadership consistently outperform their competitors. Studies show that diverse teams lead to higher innovation, increased profitability, and improved decision-making. Women Count 2022, a UK study of Financial Times Stock Exchange companies by The Pipeline, a diversity consultancy, revealed that corporations that have over 25 percent of women on their executive committees realized a profit margin of 16 percent—more than 10 times higher than those without any female board members. The study suggests that those in the latter category could be forfeiting billions of dollars of revenue with that exclusion.

UN Women HeForShe is championing thriving communities

Research from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reinforces the notion that when women thrive, communities thrive. According to their findings, gender equality is associated with improved economic performance, enhanced competitiveness, and increased social progress. Beyond economic indicators, thriving communities benefit from greater innovation, resilience, and overall well-being when women are actively engaged and empowered.

The UN Women HeForShe movement, through its commitment to respectful disruption, actively supports the IMF theory that when women thrive, communities flourish. By engaging over three million supporters worldwide, UN Women HeForShe channels resources and advocacy toward programs that uplift and empower women while concurrently mentoring men. These initiatives, funded by UN Women HeForShe, span various sectors, including education, healthcare, economic empowerment, and leadership development. Through targeted investments, the organization drives tangible progress towards creating thriving communities across the globe.

BMC’s commitment to HeForShe

BMC recognizes its critical role in influencing gender equality, especially in the tech sector, and is focused on creating inclusive workplaces where women thrive, without diminishing the role of men. Throughout the year, BMC supports UN Women HeForShe initiatives such as policy advisement, employee training, volunteering, awareness, and our annual Global Move event in October.

During Global Move, BMC uses its influence to fundraise and drive awareness for UN Women HeForShe by encouraging its entire workforce and ecosystem to move, walk, run, or roll for 132 minutes. That time is intentional, driving awareness that throughout the world, gender parity will take 132 years to achieve unless we all work together toward progress, and that equality is achievable through taking action. BMC’s support for UN Women HeForShe seeks to elevate the visibility of women, empower allies of gender equality, inspire women to pursue their goals, celebrate their achievements, and inclusively support those who identify as women in their careers.

Join the movement

We invite you to join us on October 21 for Global Move 2023 as we strive to help eliminate bias and create a more equitable world for women in the workforce and beyond. Every action matters, and together, we can be agents of positive change, respectfully disrupting the norms that perpetuate gender inequality. By doing so, we not only advance the cause of gender equality but also foster a more inclusive, innovative, and prosperous world for all.

 #CSR

As we recognize International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, we have a great opportunity to celebrate and talk about tangible ways to continue to uplift and advance women in the workplace, particularly in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). As my colleague, Pam Fitzwater-Johansen, noted in a previous blog, mentorship and sponsorship are vital tools women, and really all workers, can use to amplify their voices and move their careers forward.

Mentors and sponsors

We’ve spoken previously about the power of allies and allyship. At BMC, we are continuously working to be allies, and we’re extending that to advocate sponsorship, which goes beyond demonstrating supportive behaviors to taking practical actions to help with career advancement.

Mentors provide support and empathy, and can span management, peers, co-workers, and anyone who has a unique, relevant point of view to share insights, offer advice, and be a sounding board. A sponsor is a senior-level leader and advocate who helps an individual advance their career with skills building, strategic planning, and wisdom to support their journey. A sponsor elevates them in the room where decisions are made, championing them when opportunities arise.

Harvard Business Review shared an excellent step-by-step guide on sponsorship here. The LinkedIn Learning course, “Effective Sponsorship for Sponsors,” offers insights into what a sponsor is and how anyone can become a sponsor through intentional allyship.

Mentors and sponsors each have their own strengths and merits. As Jackie Ferguson from The Diversity Movement shares in Forbes, “Where sponsorship is focused specifically on professional development and career advancement, mentorship can be a more helpful tool for nurturing feelings of belonging and inclusion. Mentors are especially helpful in learning how to navigate workplaces where dimensions of one’s identity are currently or typically underrepresented. A new, nonbinary Gen-Z employee, for instance, may benefit greatly from a voluntary mentor who identifies as LGBTQ+, so long as the two are mutually invested in the relationship.”

In the pre-pandemic world where the majority of workers were onsite, finding and securing mentors and sponsors was an easier feat. With the increased, now mainstream, adoption of remote and hybrid workforces, there’s an opportunity for organizations and leaders to rebuild those same offerings for workers and women who primarily work offsite. According to the most recent Lean In and McKinsey Women in the Workplace study, less than half of companies surveyed offer virtual mentorship and sponsorship programs.

Those virtual programs are increasingly necessary as more women want to work outside an office, and promotional opportunities still elude the majority of women. Only one in ten women wants to work mostly onsite, and many women cite remote and hybrid work options as a top reason for joining or staying with an organization. Respondents said it wasn’t just about flexibility; the safety net of fewer microaggressions and higher levels of psychological safety were equally important considerations.

The study also highlights the still-disproportionate number of women in leadership roles, which can create a vacuum of women at the top to be mentors and sponsors, with only one in four C-suite leaders identifying as a woman, and only one in 20 a woman of color. For every 100 men who are promoted from entry-level roles to management, only 87 women are promoted, and only 82 women of color are promoted. These numbers are also echoed by the LinkedIn Gender Equity in the Workplace economic graph.

For women who do arrive at the top, it’s still a struggle, with 43 percent of women leaders telling Lean In and McKinsey they are burned out, versus 31 percent of male leaders. To help women advance, and maintain balance once they do, organizations have an opportunity to provide flexible work environments and thoughtful wellness benefits that deliver services and support for women at every stage of their lives.

Practical steps

So, how can leaders move the needle to foster inclusion, growth, and advancement for those who identify as women?

In 2023, pay transparency and equal pay for equal roles should be a baseline goal. In 2022, BMC was certified by Fair Pay Workplace (“FPW”) for our efforts to create sustainable fair pay for our employees around the world. FPW certification holds us accountable, reviewing and independently verifying the steps we are taking to achieve global pay equity across gender, race, and intersectional considerations.

Say something nice about an employee or colleague out loud. Write a LinkedIn recommendation or leave positive feedback on your internal employee recognition platform for your outstanding women colleagues and direct reports. You can also cast a wider net and acknowledge the women in your professional networks to support their professional growth.

Employee resource groups (ERGs) exist to give subsets of employees a safe space to gather, discuss individual and shared experiences, and empower each other through education, volunteering, and other collaborative opportunities. At BMC, Women in Technology and Business is our longest-running ERG, fostering open, real discussions among the women who work at BMC.

Curate experiences that are professionally valuable for women—employees and customers—such as user groups, speaker series, and breakout sessions at events. Recently, the BMC Brazil office held a “Control-M for Her” event where female employees, clients, and partners gathered to network and learn more about expanding the capabilities for our Control-M data workflow orchestration solution in their respective tech stacks.

To attract and hire the next generation of talent, make substantive changes that foster a pipeline of strong future leaders, regardless of their backgrounds. Expand opportunities for hiring and advancement—and candidate access—by retooling job descriptions with gender-neutral language and functional requirements that are skills-based. Include anonymous candidate screening technology like career.place into your talent strategy.

Provide enhanced learning and development opportunities. BMC does this through our Grow @ BMC program and by offering LinkedIn Learning memberships to all employees for self-paced, skills-building coursework. All women and women-identifying employees have also been gifted a membership to Uplevyl, a global online community that creates opportunities for women to support one another with professional advice and financial literacy tools.

Hold your team accountable for practicing and promoting inclusive behaviors with ongoing training and resources. CulturePop is a self-paced, micro-learning app that encourages cross-cultural curiosity. BMC’s corporate membership is available to all employees to use within their teams to help expand their cultural awareness.

Encourage organizational, employee, and ecosystem participation in initiatives like UN Women, a United Nations organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, and HeForShe, a solidarity movement for gender equality created by UN Women that invites men and boys to engage in and advocate for gender equality in our lifetime. BMC is proud to partner with these organizations to raise funds through our annual Global Move event and to spread awareness throughout the year.

Focus on building environments where women thrive and that inclusively support them in their careers by inspiring them to pursue their goals without barriers. BMC is working toward an important cultural shift that establishes that the inclusion and elevation of more women in tech and business does not equate to a lesser role for men.

Fostering a workplace that is more welcoming to and inclusive of women requires doing the work and investing resources to establish, maintain, and grow supportive mechanisms—from cultural changes to dialogues to opportunities, and more. It’s necessary work to bring the next generation of women into the STEM workforce, help them advance, and ensure that the Autonomous Digital Enterprise includes everyone.

At BMC, two of our guiding principles are Do the Right Thing and Prioritize People. It’s something we adhere to internally for our workforce and externally for our customers and partners. August is National Civility Month and a great reminder to revisit some of the concepts of civility.

Civility also ties into customer centricity, which Gartner defines as “the ability of people in an organization to understand customers’ situations, perceptions, and expectations. Customer centricity demands that the customer is the focal point of all decisions related to delivering products, services, and experiences to create customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy.”

At the end of the day, it’s a concept tied to our humanity. We’re humans first, workers second. We gain a better understanding of our customers and each other when we lead with our humanity, and the Platinum Rule (discussed in a previous blog on allyship), which is about treating people the way they want to be treated. In an increasingly digital-first world and workplace, humanity, civility, and customer centricity mean taking extra steps to listen, learn, and understand our employees, colleagues, and customers, and their expectations and preferences.

The business impact of customer centricity and civility

As companies continue to adapt in the face of change, many are beginning their evolution to an Autonomous Digital Enterprise (ADE), which is grounded in actionable insights, business agility, and customer centricity. One of the tenets of the ADE is delivering a Transcendent Customer Experience, which is something I’m passionate about in my role as Chief Customer Officer.

Customers make or break a business, and PwC’s new Customer Loyalty Survey reveals that in the last year, a quarter of customers stopped using or buying from a business that delivered a bad product, service, or customer service experience. And even in a digital-first world, humanity, and by association, civility, matter. One-third to one-half of respondents said human interaction is important to their loyalty.

The impact of customer service—and especially, poor customer service—was significant among those surveyed. According to PwC, “55 percent of respondents said they would stop buying from a company that they otherwise liked after several bad experiences, and eight percent said they would stop after just one bad experience. While eight percent may not seem like much, it is when you’re talking about a market-leading company with millions of customers…And it doesn’t just have to be ‘bad’ experiences for some to leave: 32 percent said they’d drop a company if it provided inconsistent experiences.”

Customer centricity and civility in the workplace

In the workplace, and especially across a globally distributed and increasingly remote workforce, we’re working more closely with colleagues and managers who, by nature of culture or region, have different behavioral expectations and preferences. When we take the time to understand those, it can help deepen and enrich our relationships.

What do I mean by this? Take the ever-present Teams or Zoom meeting. Are you a “jump on the call and get right to the point” person or a “take a minute to break the ice first before we dive in” person? When you’re on a call with several people, the tone is usually set by the person who initiated the meeting, or the first one to dial in. Regardless of the tone, it’s still a good exercise in civility to say hello, good morning or afternoon, and ask how everyone is (see above re: humanity).

In her blog on transitioning from the military to the civilian workforce, my colleague, Jannelle Allong-Diakabana, discussed the importance of civility in the workplace because it “sets the tone and shows teammates and stakeholders we’re rowing in the same direction.”

When you’re having a smaller meeting, or engaging with colleagues for the first time, ask their preferences, and take their verbal, and if onscreen, physical, cues. If you open with pleasantries and they don’t respond in kind, then take the hint and get on with your agenda. If they do respond in kind, take a few moments to have an engaged conversation before you talk shop. And be mindful of including everyone in the conversation. Our unconscious bias checklist for self-aware leaders is here.

Everyone has a limited amount of time in the day, so being present is also very important. Whether meeting in person or virtually, show up on time and give each speaker your full attention. Turn off your notifications so texts and emails don’t ding in the background; review any materials supplied ahead of time; and be ready to respond if you’re likely to be asked questions.

The adage about “this meeting could have been an email” has a point. Don’t take time out of people’s day for a conversation that could have been handled over email or a Teams chat. Be mindful of others’ schedules. If you only need 20 minutes or 45 minutes, only schedule that much time. Give people that ten or 15 minutes back in their day.

And about those email communications. Civility also comes into play, there, too. If you need more time to formulate an answer, say so. If a deadline is untenable, say so and offer an alternative. Ask for what you need, and accept the same boundary-setting from others. Also, read the whole email, including embedded emails. Take the time to understand the conversation and what’s being asked of you, and then respond accordingly.

Don’t just take my word for it, Christine Porath has a short TED Talk dedicated to the business benefits of workplace civility called “Why being respectful to your coworkers is good for business.”

Civility as part of DEI

Civility is part of the larger discussion of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), which we champion at BMC, and write about in our ongoing blog series.

Building an inclusive workforce that truly includes everyone—no exceptions—ensures civility across the board. And that means being mindful of words and actions, from the point of hiring and throughout the employment tenure. It’s something I take very seriously.

At BMC, we conduct a Voice of Our People survey to see how our employees are feeling and learn what’s working and what we could be doing better. To help my team continue their professional development, I established an inclusive leadership journey of the six LinkedIn Learning courses below, which are open to everyone with a LinkedIn Learning account.

Each of the courses is dedicated to learning behaviors that encourage civility. I asked my direct reports and their teams to take one class a week for six weeks, have constructive conversations about the coursework, and implement the best practices they learned in their work and personal lives.

• Developing Your Emotional Intelligence
• Leading with Emotional Intelligence
• Developing Self-Awareness
• Teaching Civility in the Workplace
• Developing Executive Presence
• Bill George on Self-Awareness, Authenticity, and Leadership

As BMC strives to build an Autonomous Digital Enterprise that includes everyone, everything we do begins and ends with people. Our employees, customers, and partners are the heart of our business, and setting a standard for civility raises us all up. To learn more about civility, check out the resources at The Muhammed Ali Center on Civility and Compassion, an organization that BMC is proud to sponsor.

The Platinum Rule, established by Milton J. Bennett, says that we should treat people the way that they want to be treated. As more of us leave our screens behind to resume real-world interactions, we do so with better awareness around current social issues and a desire to foster more respectful personal engagements, which gives us a fantastic opportunity to put The Platinum Rule into practice.

Educate yourself

In our blog on Pride month, we talked about LGBTQ+ allyship, but allyship goes beyond one group. It’s about using your personal power and privilege to be an ally to all people in historically untapped and excluded groups. By taking on their struggles as your own, educating yourself about what you don’t know, and amplifying inequalities, you can foster opportunities for change.

There are many online resources available to help you get started, including:

• Creative Equity Toolkit
• Guide to Allyship
• PFLAG’s allyship guide
• Helpful tips from consumer brands Ben & Jerry’s and General Mills
• Our unconscious bias checklist for self-aware leaders
• Harvard University’s Project Implicit

At BMC, we have created an Allyship Toolkit of resources to help our employees recognize and address bias. I’ve also assembled a YouTube playlist of helpful allyship and leadership video resources here. If you’d like to do a deeper dive on the foundational concept of allyship, Dr. Cathy Royal is a must read. You can find content on her Quadrant Behavior Theory here and an excellent conversation with her on the subject is here.

Foster an inclusive environment

Diversity is a fact and inclusivity is an act. While many organizations have worked to correct their hiring, retention, and paths to promotion, inequalities still exist, and creating an inclusive workforce is an ongoing process, as we discussed here.

Building and maintaining inclusive environments can help correct and eliminate unconscious biases, but it can also stoke the fires of those who refuse to accept that diversity. If your organization needs help managing potential conflicts, try CulturePop, a self-paced, micro-learning app that encourages cross-cultural curiosity. Our BMC employees use it within their teams to help expand their cultural awareness. And this is a handy checklist on fostering more diverse and inclusive engagements every time you host a virtual meeting.

Turn to the experts

In a previous blog, we’ve talked about micro-aggressions in the workplace that pile up and take their toll. Maybe you’re on the receiving end of that, maybe you’ve witnessed it—or maybe you’re guilty of doing it and are actively working to improve yourself. Bystander intervention training is a foundation of allyship, encouraging and preparing people to take action when they witness harassing and discriminatory behavior—wherever it occurs.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) supports bystander intervention training as a way to create a “sense of collective responsibility [that] motivates bystanders to step in and take action when they observe problematic behaviors [and provide] the skills and confidence to intervene as appropriate.”

While its origins stem from intervening in workplace sexual harassment, bystander intervention training has evolved to include all forms of discrimination and can help each of us be collectively better and learn to support one another in our professional and personal lives. The training helps remove the uncertainty of not knowing when or how to intervene safely, especially in uncomfortable situations. Beyond outlining steps to take in the moment, it also provides a deeper understanding of how to discourage and even prevent future incidents and promotes a respectful, inclusive culture in the workplace and the world.

Many free bystander intervention training classes are available that offer de-escalation techniques and guidance on when and how to safely help check others—and yourself—on bias. If you’re a LinkedIn Learning subscriber, I recommend these courses on bystander intervention and allyship:

• From Bystander to Upstander
• Becoming An Ally to All
• Supporting Allyship and Anti-Racism at Work
• Inclusive Mindset for Committed Allies
• Becoming a Male Ally at Work
• Leading Your Org on a Journey of Allyship

To support non-profit bystander training, visit Hollaback! and Action Breaks Silence.

Conclusion

Everyone’s path is different, but at the end of the day, we’re stronger and better when we walk it together. Encouraging open, honest dialogue and recognizing personal privilege as an opportunity—and responsibility—to be an ally are important steps on that journey. At BMC, we believe the Autonomous Digital Enterprise includes everyone, and we strive to be better global citizens as we walk that path with you.

June is Pride Month, the annual, global event that recognizes and celebrates the historical impacts of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) communities. As many businesses evolve their planning for where and how their people work, it’s a good time to check in and see how they’re doing in creating a more equitable life for their LGBTQ+ workforce.

LGBTQ+ at work

In the business world, ensuring equity for LGBTQ+ workers is an important part of an organization’s overall diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. According to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC)’s annual Corporate Equality Index (CEI), Fortune 500 companies and CEI-rated companies are actively working to approach parity, and many are succeeding. We’re proud that BMC scored 95 out of 100 on the 2022 Index for our efforts in this space.

The 2022 CEI found that 93 percent of Fortune 500 companies include sexual orientation and 91 percent include gender identity in their formal nondiscrimination policies (down from 96 and 94 percent in 2021), and that rises to 100 percent for both categories among CEI-rated employers. Fifty-six percent of the Fortune 500 offer benefits to domestic partners, regardless of how they identify their sex and gender, with 66 percent including transgender benefits (down from 57 and 71 percent); for CEI-rated employers, it’s 74 and 88 percent (down from 75 and 93) percent.

And the 500+ US business leaders—employing over 15.4 million in the US and generating a combined $7.4 trillion in revenue—that support The Business Coalition for the Equality Act are rallying behind the federal Equality Act legislation that would provide the same basic protections to LGBTQ+ people that are provided to other protected groups under US federal law. BMC is proud to be part of this collective.

Championing diversity

As organizations strive to do better, employees are working harder to find their voice and push for change, too. Ninety-three percent of CEI-rated employers support organizational LGBTQ+ diversity competency and have an employee resource group (ERG) or diversity council that includes LGBTQ+ and allied employees. I am proud that BMC is one of them.

We have a dedicated Pride ERG to promote LGBTQ+ diversity, inclusion, and allyship among our employees, partners, and customers. Our ERGs also pay it forward. One of the best ways to create equity is through economic empowerment, and each of our ERGs participates in microlending through Kiva. Our Pride ERG supports LGBTQ+ recipients, allowing us to give back and work together by investing in the community. BMC supports many organizations, including several that foster LGBTQ+ advocacy, job placement, awareness training, and tech program initiatives:

• The Humsafar Trust—an LGBTQ community-based organization that provides resources, workshops, medical screenings, and treatments in India.
• La Alianza Social LGBTI de Antioquia—a youth, social, and community-based organization in Colombia that promotes actions and develop strategies aimed at the recognition of diversity as a common heritage of humanity.
• Visual Echoes for Human Rights Advocacy (VEHRA)—a non-profit promoting and advancing LGBTQ rights in Uganda through sports, visual arts, and culture.
• Arte de Amar Project—an organization dedicated to expanding and strengthening the LGBTQIA community in Brazil through family sheltering activities in education, health, culture, sport, and leisure.
• Out in Tech—the world’s largest non-profit community of LGBTQ+ tech leaders that creates opportunities for its 40,000 members to advance their careers, grow their networks, and leverage tech for social change.

Making real changes

For LGBTQ+ workers facing a return to office, or entering the office for the first time if they were hired while remote, there can be valid concerns about losing some of the freedoms of expression and identity of working from home, or the emergence of unconscious biases in face-to-face settings. According to Out Leadership, an LGBTQ+ employee who doesn’t disclose their identity at work can lose up to ten percent of their productivity.

Today’s leaders need to be intentional in the vigorous pursuit of all avenues to dismantle bias, discrimination, and inequity on a micro and macro level to embrace a multi-generational workforce—and especially those now entering the workforce. According to a 2021 Gallup poll, roughly 21 percent of Generation Z Americans who have reached adulthood (born between 1997 and 2003) identify as LGBT.

A great first step is getting educated. The web is teeming with resources to help you get up to speed on LGBTQ+ and celebrate Pride. If you’re not a member of the LGBTQ+ community, are you as supportive as you think you are? In a previous blog, we explored unconscious bias, which is a good litmus test. PFLAG has a whole section on being an ally to the LGBTQ+ community here, including a 52-page guide. YouTube has a variety of TED Talks. LinkedIn Learning also has several courses on fostering a workplace that supports LGBTQ+ workers.

Respect is a cornerstone of how we all engage with each other, and we addressed the evolving concept of pronoun usage here. The HRC has a glossary of LGBTQ+ terminology, and this is a handy, all-ages deep dive with additional resources. Social media is catching on, too. You can now add pronouns to your LinkedIn profile.

Year-round inclusivity

Beyond the month of June, you can work with your human resources team to help build an inclusive organization. Advocate for inclusive policies. If you don’t have a dedicated DEI resource, internal diversity council, or ERGs, suggest them—and offer to lead a group.

Request guest speakers on LGBTQ+ topics. Here at BMC, we have a monthly diversity speaker series with thought leaders on a variety of DEI topics, including LGBTQ+. Review your employee volunteerism opportunities—are they diverse? If not, suggest additions that are. And look for opportunities for your organization to support and engage the LGBTQ+ community year-round as suppliers and partners.

It’s also important to be more inclusive in hiring LGBTQ+ people into your workforce—and promoting them. There are currently only four openly-LGBTQ+ CEOs on the Fortune 500, and of the 5,670 board seats in the Fortune 500, only 25 seats are held by out LGBTQ+ people.

Providing equal benefits across your workforce to all types of families is imperative, as is ensuring access to LGBTQ+ mental health resources like the LGBTQ Psychotherapists of Color Directory or the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network—and expanding coverage to help pay for them.

Get involved

These are some of the ways BMC employees are supporting the LGBTQ+ community, and we invite you to support them, too.

• StartOut—Volunteer to mentor an LGBTQ+ founder.
• The Trevor Project—Volunteer with crisis intervention services and provide a safe, secure connection for LGBTQ+ youth.
• MindOut LGBTQ Mental Health Service (UK)—Volunteer to help online or by phone as an LGBTQ+ youth counselor.
• Pride in STEM—Support LGBTQIA+ scientists and engineers across the world.

Building a more inclusive and diverse workforce makes each of us and our businesses stronger. By encouraging, embracing, and honoring each other’s diversity, we can acknowledge, address, and defeat inequities in pay, leadership, and psychological safety and ensure that the Autonomous Digital Enterprise includes everyone.

#DEI

International Women’s Day (IWD) recognizes women around the world, regardless of their national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic or political affiliations, for their personal and professional achievements. “[It’s] a time to recognize the positive value and impact women bring into our lives, the achievements made across history, and the future we can look forward to changing,” says Humam Jumaa, the area director of Dubai, United Arab Emirates for BMC.

This year, the IWD theme is #BreakTheBias, a global campaign to raise awareness around bias and encourage action toward women’s equality. With a focus on building workplaces where women thrive, the campaign seeks to elevate the visibility of women creatives; inspire women to pursue their goals without barrier; forge women’s equality in tech; celebrate women solidifying change; and empower women’s healthcare choices.

Celebrating the change makers

Here at BMC, we’re proud to celeberate our past and present BMC women inventors making positive impacts as trailblazers in tech and software development, in the mainframe and beyond.

Building better workplaces

While we celebrate our own women, we must also acknowledge that corporate female representation took a hit during the pandemic as many women stepped away to attend to their families. Burnout is also an issue. McKinsey’s 2021 Women in the Workplace Study found that more women felt burned out in 2021 than in the previous year’s study, and that burnout is growing faster among women than among men.

According to the study, “One in three women…have considered downshifting their career or leaving the workforce [while] four in ten women have considered leaving their company or switching jobs—and high employee turnover in recent months suggests that many of them are following through.”

To get those women back into the workforce, or keep the ones who’ve stayed, McKinsey says, “The path forward is clear. Companies need to take bold steps to address burnout. They need to recognize and reward the women leaders who are driving progress. And they need to do the deep cultural work required to create a workplace where all women feel valued.”

So how can we create workplaces where everyone can thrive?

Start by establishing a culture that recognizes the multilayered commitments many women have—and that their formal job is likely one of the many jobs they hold. Historically speaking, women are often the primary caretakers for their families, and with the uptick in multigenerational households, that doesn’t just mean children, but also parents and extended family. There’s no such thing as “off the clock” for these women.

The pandemic-driven ascent in remote and hybrid flexibility is here to stay, and it allows for a better balance of work/family commitments so women can continue a path toward management and the C-suite. If you foster a culture that offers worksite flexibility—and you mean it—that’s a terrific way to support women in the workplace who can get the job done, while recognizing that the when and the where aren’t really important. You can also reinforce your flexible culture by giving your employees the tools and support they need to thrive in it.

A great next step is tackling bias in the workplace by recognizing it in yourself and others and being vigilant about correcting it. “Everyone has bias. Saying you don’t have bias is doing yourself a disservice,” says Tami Reisman, a senior program manager at BMC. “What’s important is recognizing your personal bias and acknowledging it. This allows you to actively set it aside in your thoughts and actions and build positive experiences that will broaden and adjust your thinking.”

Fostering equality

An important cultural shift is to establish among your entire workforce that including more women in tech and business, and elevating them, —does not equate to a lesser role for men. Acknowledge your gender pay gaps and set clear, tangible goals to reach equal work and equal pay.

“The quote, ‘a rising tide raises all boats,’ is one that has always resonated with me,” says Kelly Hageman, area vice president of Inside Sales at BMC. “There is enough opportunity and goodness in our world to inspire everyone and give us all a chance to be a contributor to a better tomorrow.”

“Men shouldn’t see the rise of women in tech as a threat, but rather as an opportunity for new technologies and markets to emerge and develop. In time, that will provide more opportunities for everyone,” adds Stuart Wright, area vice president at BMC.

“As a ‘girl dad,’ I want to see a more equal and inclusive world for [my daughter] to grow up in. But even if I didn’t have a daughter, I’ve seen the benefit of promoting women within the tech space and specifically at BMC. When we’re working on a complex problem, we come up with better answers when we have a team that brings a variety of experiences, perspectives, and ideas to the table.”

Ensuring a healthy workforce

Your people are the lifeblood of your business, and their overall health can have a tremendous impact on the health of your organization. Ensuring equal access to healthcare for all employees, including healthcare for women’s health issues, is imperative. It’s also important to amplify available resources so employees are aware of them and know how to use them.

You should also be open to talking about your current policies, and reviewing and revising them regularly to ensure support for preventive screenings and progressive care related to women’s health. Educate your managers about the unique health challenges women face and give them the resources to be supportive of the women on their teams. That means not just physical health, but emotional health, too.

Here at BMC, our value structure is grounded in prioritizing people and doing the right thing, and our comprehensive benefits coverage includes resources for our physical, emotional, and financial health. To that end, we are proud that BMC recently earned Silver Level recognition in the American Heart Association Workplace Health Achievement Index for our culture of health.

A healthy workforce also includes building an environment that instills psychological safety and resiliency and empowers women. Employee resource groups (ERGs) such as BMC’s Women in Technology and Business (WiTB) promote networking, growth through education and mentoring, and community outreach for our employees, regional offices, customers, and partners.

Mentoring can pay both professional and personal dividends, as two BMC employees have discovered from their positive experiences as mentees. “My mentors took me out of my comfort zone and made me think out [of] the box. They saw the passion and determination I had every day and used that to inspire [me]. They had [an] inclusive mindset to believe in me regardless of my gender,” shares Luciana Cazenave, principal sales operations manager at BMC. “Allyship was key in my career at BMC. Great leaders inspire people, and that has been my experience with the BMC leaders.”

“Since I have been partnered with my BMC mentors, I have experienced exponential growth not only in my professional life, but also my personal life,” explains Andrika Payne, corporate social representative at BMC. “I was surprised to find out that mentorship learning can go both ways, which is something I had not anticipated.”

Paying it forward

As we celebrate International Women’s Day, we invite you to join us in our support of organizations that are striving to help eliminate bias and create a more equitable world for women in the workforce. It’s how we’re helping create an Autonomous Digital Enterprise that includes everyone.

• Our partnership with the BreakLine organization helps men and women U.S. veterans and their spouses; people from all backgrounds who identify as women; and people of color transition to the civilian tech workforce.
• Our ERGs microlend to women entrepreneurs through Kiva.
• She codes is supporting the next generation of women software developers.
• The Lila Poonawalla Foundation (LPF) works to help improve digital literacy for girls from economically challenged backgrounds.
• The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK-based charity working to put the power of computing and digital making into the hands of people all over the world.
• Robotex is an India-based non-profit advancing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEAM), robotics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and Internet of Things (IoT) to government schools in urban, tribal, and rural areas.

Learn more about IWD events in your community at https://www.internationalwomensday.com/Events.

2020 and the first half of 2021 have shown us incredible feats of humanity that have helped balance cultural inequality and inequity, and forced us to reassess how we treat each other. The Platinum Rule comes to mind as we think about how we want our community, our society, and the world to move forward with more awareness around social issues and challenges. It’s become clear that we have an incredible opportunity to reset our biases and perspectives, and challenge what is acceptable in how we engage with each other.

While being mostly remote, we may have lost our filters. In doing so, new or old unconscious biases—those subtle, often unintentional, but still offensive comments or actions directed at a minority or other nondominant group that unconsciously reinforce a stereotype—may have emerged. It’s even possible that within our “bubbles,” we have adopted or absorbed the biased perspective of others.

Since more of us are already or will soon be heading back out into the world more frequently, it’s important to be aware of our behaviors and look for opportunities to create a more accepting world. And it may fall on us to help others do the same when nobody else will step up. Start by checking yourself. Harvard University’s Project Implicit has several self-tests you can use to gauge your own biases. Our own checklist for self-aware leaders is here.

Open the dialogue

The first step in approaching problematic behavior is to recognize it as an opportunity for everyone to learn. You don’t want to lead with anger or respond to aggression with aggression. That’s pouring gasoline on a fire. It’s also important to level set whether the aggression is genuine ignorance, an unintended gaffe, or willful baiting that’s an overt attempt to trigger a response.

By opening a dialogue and following up someone’s demonstrative bias with interactions that facilitate cognitive thinking, both parties can help overcome that unconscious bias in the moment, at the point of impact—without attacking the person. Start from a place of understanding that unconscious bias is a human condition and, much like software, we are updating our knowledge all the time.

Examples of questions to help with the discussion include:

• “What made you say that?”
• “Can you tell me the website/news source you heard that from?”
• “Can you explain what you meant, because I’m not sure I got it?”

Be an ally

In our blog on Pride month, we talked about allyship, but allyship goes beyond one group. It’s about using your power and privilege to be an ally to people in historically untapped and excluded groups by taking on their struggles as your own; educating yourself about what you don’t know; amplifying inequalities; and fostering opportunities for change.

There are many online resources available to help you get started, including the Creative Equity Toolkit, the Guide to Allyship, PFLAG’s allyship guide, and even consumer brands Ben & Jerry’s and General Mills have some helpful tips. At BMC, we have created an Allyship Toolkit of resources to help our employees recognize and address bias. I’ve also assembled a YouTube playlist of helpful allyship and leadership video resources here.

If you’d like to do a deeper dive on the foundational concept of allyship, Dr. Cathy Royal is a must read. You can find content on her Quadrant Behavior Theory here, and a recent conversation with her on the subject is here.

Foster an inclusive environment

Diversity is a fact and inclusivity is an act. While many organizations have worked to correct their hiring, retention, and paths to promotion, inequalities still exist, and creating an inclusive workforce is an ongoing process, as we discussed here.

Building and maintaining inclusive environments can help correct and eliminate unconscious biases, but it can also stoke the fires of those who refuse to accept that diversity. If your organization needs help, try CulturePop, a self-paced, micro-learning app that encourages cross-cultural curiosity. Our BMC employees have started using it within their teams to help expand their cultural awareness. And this is a handy checklist on fostering more diverse and inclusive engagements every time you host a virtual meeting.

Turn to the experts

In a previous blog, we talked about micro-aggressions in the workplace that pile up and take their toll. Maybe you’re on the receiving end of that, maybe you’ve witnessed it—or maybe you’re guilty of doing it and are actively working to improve yourself. Bystander intervention training is a foundation of allyship, encouraging and preparing people to take action when they witness harassing and discriminatory behavior—wherever it occurs.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) supports bystander intervention training as a way to create a “sense of collective responsibility [that] motivates bystanders to step in and take action when they observe problematic behaviors [and provide] the skills and confidence to intervene as appropriate.”

While its origins stem from intervening in workplace sexual harassment, bystander intervention training has evolved to include discrimination in all its forms and can help each of us be collectively better and learn to support one another in our professional and personal lives. The training helps remove the uncertainty of not knowing when or how to intervene safely, especially in uncomfortable situations. Beyond outlining steps to take in the moment, it also provides a deeper understanding of how to discourage and even prevent future incidents and promotes a respectful, inclusive culture in the workplace and the world.

Many free bystander intervention training classes are available that offer de-escalation techniques and guidance on when and how to safely help check others—and yourself—on bias. If you’re a LinkedIn Learning subscriber, check out the “From Bystander to Upstander” course. To support non-profit bystander training, visit Hollaback! and Actions Breaks Silence.

Conclusion

Everyone’s path is different, but at the end of the day, we’re walking it together—and together we’re stronger and better. Encouraging open, honest dialogue and recognizing personal privilege as an opportunity to be an ally are important steps on that journey. At BMC, we believe the Autonomous Digital Enterprise includes everyone, and we strive to be better global citizens as we walk that path with you.

Rolling into a new year of remote working ten months after the pandemic changed the world might look a little different, or it might be more of the same. Now, with almost a year under your belt, let’s check in on lessons learned since our original blog post, and look at six ways you can make the most of remote—for yourself and your colleagues.

Give people grace

2020 was full of watershed moments for elevating the concepts of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and it turns out that remote working has been a fantastic avenue to help level the playing field. By taking people out of the office, it opened up new avenues to empowerment.

That said, it’s important to recognize that what the pandemic has looked like for you may be radically different for your teammates. For some, going remote has meant long, lonely days, while, for others, it’s meant working multiple roles in tandem as their day job blurred together with family care, running a household, homeschooling, and more.

Some of your colleagues may need to work at different paces, intervals, and hours from your own “normal.”

• Think first before you set multiple meetings.
• Consider whether an e-mail will resolve the issue versus blocking out time on people’s calendars.
• If you need to move a meeting, give more than one alternative for a reset as things might have already been moved around once to fit the first timeslot.
• If you’re trying to catch someone via an instant messaging tool, query availability first before you barrel into a stream of questions or tasks.

Lighten the mood

Unless you had a crystal ball (and if so, let’s talk lottery numbers), you probably didn’t expect to still be working from home, and the novelty may have worn off ages ago, especially if you’re on back-to-back calls all day, every day. As you kick off a new year with your team, try a virtual team building event to reconnect and level set after the holidays, and check in with each other.

Does anyone need help or guidance? Did the holidays create an issue that’s kept anyone from jumping right back into work, or that will require new scheduling accommodation? Give employees a safe space to relax, discuss challenges, and air grievances with a virtual “social” gathering—a Zoom happy hour, a silly pet or home show and tell, or a “game night” in the afternoon using your conferencing app’s whiteboard for Pictionary.

Foster inclusive discussions

Diversity is a fact and inclusion is an act. Now that everyone in your meetings has an equal seat—no more jockeying for a specific chair or place at the table—make sure that seat comes with a voice. Give everyone an opportunity to weigh in and don’t be afraid to have a firm hand in redirecting the conversation if one participant tries to dominate it.

Be mindful of your language. Don’t address a mixed group of attendees with one gender salutation that’s a form of micro-aggression, i.e., using “guys” instead of inclusive words like “team” or “everyone.” Create allyship when you’re setting up discussions. If you want a quorum of diverse insights—and really, that should be a requirement for every meeting—take a last look at your invite list before you hit send. Is it representative of multiple groups? If it isn’t, add people who can help facilitate a better conversation.

Click here for a handy checklist on fostering more diverse and inclusive engagements every time you host a virtual meeting.

Expand diverse hiring

According to the United Nations, 15 percent of the world’s population are people with disabilities, yet in some countries, up to 80 percent of them are unemployed. And for those who do work, challenges still remain. A 2020 Accenture study found that 77 percent of employees and 80 percent of leaders with disabilities choose not to be transparent about their disability at work. Flexible arrangements such as remote working were cited as one path to creating better working environments.

Remote working creates opportunities for people with disabilities to find jobs that might have previously been unavailable to them based on location, or for which they may have been passed over due to bias and preconceived notions about the perceived ability to perform a particular role. Moving the interviewing and hiring process online through remote tools removes many of the visual cues that might shift an interviewer away from a candidate, and for the interviewee, it can eliminate the stressors of physically getting to an interview. Both sides can hopefully be present and authentic—and evaluate each other based on their best selves.

Set the stage

Now, back to you for a minute. If you’re still using the tweener set up from when you thought you wouldn’t be remote for long, this is a great time to go ahead and trick out your space with exactly what you need. Start with a great chair. Unless the straight back you borrowed from the dining table is actually really comfortable for you, invest in a quality chair that won’t leave you debilitated at the end of the day.

The same goes for the workspace itself. How’s your desk height? How’s your lighting? Do you need another lamp, or to move your desk to the other wall so your screen isn’t in direct sunlight for half of the day? Is your PC running like it should? If not, make time to apply all those patches and updates you keep postponing, empty your recycle bin, and uninstall any memory hog apps you never actually use.

If you’re living your life on Zoom and Teams calls, test your tech—check your camera settings so you can see what your colleagues see behind you. Test your microphone and headset to confirm you can hear and be heard, and if you’re using a wireless headset, make a habit of charging it at the end of the day so it’s ready to go at the start of the next one.

Take care of your mind and body

Everybody has adapted—or not—to the events of the last year in their own way, but if you need help, don’t be afraid to ask for it. If your company has an outreach program for mental and emotional health assistance, take advantage of it. If you’re hesitant to go see a doctor in the middle of COVID times, explore virtual options. Don’t wing it.

If you’re doing OK, but are looking for ways to do and feel better, there are many online tools out there to help you relax, recharge, and focus.

Virgin Pulse has compiled a handy selection of easy work-at-home exercises you can do anytime during the day, and the YMCA has a range of free, short exercise, yoga, and meditation videos. Our guidance from the spring still holds, too—a few times a day, push back from your desk, put down the phone, and walk around. Block time in your calendar to take your kids or your pets for a short walk to clear your head and stretch your bones.

Try out an app like Calm to learn about meditation and mindfulness and get tips on stress management.

If you’re one of the masters of time who’s actually made more room in your day while remote, or you’re itching to try something new, take a class—Coursera, LinkedIn, and Google have plenty of upskilling options, and some are free.

If you’re still grieving that cancelled vacation, The New York Times has 52 places you can visit virtually and Smithsonian Journeys can take you around the world from your laptop.

We’re pretty clearly past calling this the “new normal.” This normal is here to stay. Digital transformation, along with the accompanying evolution of businesses to becoming a future-state Autonomous Digital Enterprise, is accelerating, and the human workforce—that’s us—is part of that evolution. Our way of working, and how we work together, continues to adapt and change, and because we’re resilient, we’re learning to adapt and change, too.